I saw Cults on the last day of March at the Mercury Lounge. They were sandwiched between Superhumanoids and Magic Kids and by the looks of it, a good handful of the crowd showed up just for Cults.
Cults is a bit of a mystery. Last summer their song "Go Outside" was all over the place, with my favorite incarnation being the backing track to wheat-free, vegan bakery BabyCakes' summer video. While most contemporary bands exploit social media as much as possible, Cults takes a different approach. They've got a sparse BandCamp, a barely ever updated Twitter and up until recently had no MySpace page. Though somehow they've built a, pardon the pun, cult following. The few songs they've put up on the internet feature samples of Jim Jones' speeches and YFZ news reports. From that information alone you might think their sound is pretty dark, but it's not. It's surprisingly upbeat and fresh. They've even got a glockenspiel!
At a recent show they played a smattering of their sparkly 60s inspired pop. Singer Madeline Follin's sweet, girly voice floated on top of a dreamy, ethereal soundscape crafted by songwriting partner/guitar player Brian Oblivion and the rest of Cults' live lineup. They played my favorite song, "Oh My God" last. It's a glockenspiel laden stop-telling-me-what-to-do-all-the-time manifesto. I like to blast it when I'm feeling particularly under the thumb. I sing it in the shower a lot too, because it's really, really catchy, as are most of their songs. During their live set they proved their strong choruses are truly infectious because even the stereotypically stone-faced New York crowd was swaying and smiling and started singing along.
I have a feeling Cults is going to be big. The day after the show some dude stopped my sister in Chipotle and asked, "Are you wearing a Cults t-shirt?" That's right Cults, even kids in midtown Manhattan Chipotles are talking about you!
Cults is currently touring the US and will be making the rounds in Europe and the UK early this summer. Their anxiously awaited debut album is set to come out in early June on Lily Allen's label In The Name Of.
Images © Yvonne Penzakov for BitchBuzz.com